Various fluorochemical compositions have been used as coating compositions for application to substrates (for example, hard surface substrates and fibrous substrates) to impart low surface energy characteristics such as oil and/or water repellency (oleophobicity and/or hydrophobicity). When used in coatings or films, however, many fluorochemical materials have tended to diffuse to the surface of the coating or film and to become depleted over time (for example, due to repeated cleanings of the surface). This has led to the use of fluorochemical derivatives having reactive or functional groups (for example, perfluoropolyether thiols, silanes, phosphates, and acrylates) to enable covalent attachment to the coatings, films, or substrate surfaces.
Silane compounds having one or more fluorochemical groups have been used (alone and in combination with other materials) to prepare surface treatment compositions for substrates such as glass and ceramics. Such silane compounds have typically included one or more hydrolyzable groups and at least one polyfluorinated alkyl or polyether group.
Numerous fluorochemical surface treatments have been developed and have varied in their ease of applicability to substrates (for example, due to differences in viscosity and/or in solvent solubilities, some treatments even requiring expensive vapor deposition or multiple application steps), in their requisite curing conditions (for example, some requiring relatively high curing temperatures for relatively long periods of time), in their repellency levels, in their ease of cleaning, in their degrees of optical clarity, and/or in their durability (for example, in their chemical resistance, abrasion resistance, and/or solvent resistance). Many have also been at least somewhat substrate-specific, requiring production of multiple compositions to ensure adhesion to different substrates.